With the pandemic in its second year, coding and documentation of long-haul COVID-19 patients who are admitted or readmitted to the hospital may be a sleeper risk. They pose coding challenges because long-haul COVID-19 patients don’t have active infections and documentation may be murky, an expert said. At the same time, hospitals have seen denials for other COVID-19 claims, including patient status and sequencing.
Admissions for long-haul COVID-19 usually aren’t coded with a principal diagnosis of COVID-19 (U07.1), said Garnette McLaughlin, senior consultant and compliance officer at Intersect Healthcare + AppealMasters in Towson, Maryland. “If people aren’t actively infected with COVID, you don’t assign the COVID code. You would assign a sequela code,” which captures the residual effects of an acute illness or injury. The problem is “the documentation gets real muddy in terms of the current acute infection due to COVID or a sequela,” said McLaughlin, who is also a
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RUSH HELPS REVISE NEW CMS HOSPITAL STAR RATINGS: Nearly one-third of hospitals scored higher star ratings under CMS new methodology that s meant to create a clearer picture of quality and safety, according to data released Wednesday.
It s the first time CMS has applied the new methodology, and 45% of hospitals received the same star rating as before. Nearly a quarter, 22.7% of acute-care hospitals, had worse ratings.
Fourteen percent of hospitals under the new methodology received five stars, including Rush University Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital. Both hospitals had 5-stars under the earlier formula, and clinicians and others from the Rush helped shape the new methodology.
AHIMA and Moxe Announce AHIMA dHealth™
Assessment will allow providers to easily determine if digital health products meet industry data protection standards
Chicago, April 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) announced today the creation of AHIMA dHealth™ (AHIMAdHealth.org), a solution where providers and other healthcare stakeholders can discover digital health products, including ones that have passed an AHIMA assessment showing they secure and protect patient data.
AHIMA is working with Moxe, a clinical data clearinghouse focusing on interoperability solutions, to develop AHIMA dHealth™. Through the AHIMA dHealth™ Assessment, providers now have a reputable resource they can turn to for critical information about a digital health product’s privacy and data security practices and policies. All AHIMA dHealth™ Approved digital health products that pass the assessment will be listed in an online directory that provid
AHIMA and Moxe Announce AHIMA dHealth™ globenewswire.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from globenewswire.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Patient ID Now, a coalition of more than 40 healthcare organizations, released a framework this week aimed at creating a national strategy around patient identification that protects individual safety and security.
In the framework, the coalition calls on the federal government to closely collaborate with the private sector and with other public health authorities in working toward the goal of accurate patient identification. Throughout the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to address the issue of patient identification. The inability to accurately match patients with their records has severe patient safety and financial implications, and impedes health information exchange, said Hal Wolf, president and CEO of